Telstra Health poaches former NZ Health IT Board director to head up hospitals

Written by Kate McDonald on 13 March 2019.

Telstra Health has appointed former NZ National Health IT Board director Graeme Osborne as its head of hospitals, where he will be in charge of further developing the company's electronic medical record and hospital software division.

Mr Osborne spent close to seven years leading New Zealand's extensive eHealth program before moving to a position as general manager of system transformation at the NZ Government Chief Information Office in 2016, where he was in charge of the government's digital investment strategy.

The EMR was originally developed at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney and was purchased by Telstra Health when it bought Emerging Systems in 2014. It has since been rolled out at St John of God Midland Public and Private Hospitals in Perth and at the new Northern Beaches Hospital in Sydney.

The division also has a patient flow manager and queue manager first developed by Health IQ, the Medview medicines reconciliation system developed by Fred IT, and an Enterprise Provider Directory (EPD).

Professor Foley said that by bringing together Mr Osborne’s experience and Telstra Health’s hospital software and platforms, Telstra Health will continue to deliver and expand its services to public and private hospitals and the wider health system in Australia.

“His unique understanding of clinical, patient and organisational needs will no doubt ensure he makes a significant contribution to the growth of Telstra Health and the broader digital health sector within Australia,” she said.

“Graeme has a proven record of enabling health care providers to reap the benefits of digitisation by engaging clinicians and stakeholders from the strategy and planning stages right through to implementation and support.

During his time with the National Health IT Board, Mr Osborne oversaw a large amount of activity in the digitisation of New Zealand's health system, both in primary and secondary care. This included the roll-out of patient portals – now available to most Kiwi patients through their regular GP – the GP2GP medical record transfer system, and work on electronic medications management, eReferrals and eDischarges.